Confronting austerity woes

On October 5, Sekerani Kathumba, the headteacher at Kasakula Primary School in Ntchisi recounted several challenges teachers face to deliver quality education. 

However, he singled out high teacher-pupil ratio as the main challenge at the school.

“We are just nine teachers against 1 085 pupils. This means one teacher serves about 120 children. This is double the recommended teacher-pupil ratio of one to 60,” lamented Kathumba during the World Teacher’s Day commemorations.

“Since one teacher manages big classes, it is difficult to motivate each learner.

“This partly explains why my school loses at least 12 girls to early marriages and teenage pregnancies every year.”

With the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become extremely difficult for Kathumba and his colleagues to conduct lessons and enforce simple preventive measures, including physical  distancing.

He believes that quality education amid Covid-19 would only be possible if government recruited more teachers and constructed additional classrooms in constrained primary schools such as  Kasakula. 

Kathumba’s call is one of the numerous voices campaigning for greater investment in education, especially recruiting and training more teachers to reduce the high number of learners per teacher  in most schools nationwide.

A recent study by ActionAid, a charity which works to end poverty  in 40 countries, indicates that Malawi needs to recruit 44 205 primary school and 38 256 secondary school teachers to meet the recommended teacher-pupil ratio of one to 60 by 2030.

This is a tough call! The ask could get even tougher if the government opts for austerity policies which oftentimes result in freezing recruitment of public workers in key sectors, particularly education.

The fear is well-documented.

Recent findings by ActionAid, Education International and Public Service International fault government’s failure to deliver quality public services on austerity policies such as imposition of a cap on public sector wage bill either by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the Ministry of Finance. 

The report, titled The Public versus Austerity, exposes how IMF austerity cuts in just 15 countries, including Malawi, have blocked the recruitment of over three million nurses, teachers and other essential public servants.

“Implementation of public sector wage bill cuts undermines progress on health, education and gender equality…” it reads in part.

Government’s wage bill constitutes about 30 percent of the 2021/22 National Budget, about K436.3 billion of the K1.990 trillion financial plan passed by Parliament.

The prohibitive wage bill perennially fuels shortage of teachers in public schools, as decried by Kathumba.

Renowned activist Jessie Kabwila, now executive dean of the Malawi Institute of Management, attributes poor service delivery in the public sector to the neoliberalism policies of the IMF and other Bretton Woods institutions.

She says women and girls bear the brunt of the austerities on national social protection policies.

She says:“Austerity measures are stiffing gendered service delivery.  We cannot talk of ending child marriages and ending covid-19 impact if people, especially women, are not well-educated.

“As long as there are these budget cuts, we are condemning the poor, especially women, to serious numbers of high illiteracy and poverty,” she says.

Gladys Ganda, chairperson of the Budget and Finance committee of Parliament, expresses shock at how fiscal cuts have blocked recruitment of public workers, including teachers.  She calls the cutbacks in national spending  “a silent violation of human rights”.

The lawmaker explains: “We all know that poor public service delivery results in serious violations of people’s rights.

“As a chairperson of Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament, I commit to take action to engage fellow parliamentarians and provide effective oversight role to the Executive arm of government especially the Ministry of Finance to safeguard the legal duty of government in respecting, protecting, and fulfilling people’s rights.

ActionAid Malawi  (AAM),  a member of the Feminist Macro-economic Alliance in Malawi, campaigns for gender-just policies.

The non-governmental organisation says it is high time government started reviewing, reversing or rejecting one-size-fits-all austerity policies imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions.

“These policies impact negatively on the public and faults government against its own citizens as the public service becomes powerless to implement certain policies that are in the interest of the people,” says AAM interim executive director, Rodney Mwaisimba.